from Jeff Gordon of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch,

During his summer of reflection, Blues general manager Doug Armstrong needed time to process last season’s team failure.

“It starts out as anger, then it goes to embarrassment and then you can’t wait for today because you don’t have to talk about it anymore,” Armstrong said shortly before the Blues opened their 2023-24 training camp.

Now Armstrong can begin judging his team’s response.

He did what he could to upgrade the roster, within the team’s contractual constraints. He gathered insights on communicating constructively with players in today’s environment and providing them proper support.

Now it’s up to those players to push the Blues back on track.

“It’s a partnership with the players, whether it’s off-ice training or on-ice training of skill development or nutrition, if we can give them the tools to be their best, we benefit,” Armstrong said. “They benefit, but we benefit.”

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